sacrificial zinc?????

[grania]

Ok, picked up Caulders book on Diesel engines and read how the single most important thing you can do for the cooling system is replace the sacrificial zincs regularly-but I was left hanging there with only 2 bad photos of a 'good' and a 'bad' zinc. Is there a better really more hands on/how to book on this kind of thing and where can I find the little bugger zincs anyway? This is new to me, I love it, but I need help! (I did just replace and rehose my water pump-took about 20 hours and many trips to the local boat supply shop and hardware store-but it worked!!) Aine

[M. R. Bober]

What type of engine are you protecting?

Mitchell Bober
Sunny Annapolis (just south of Baltimore where every kitchen has a zinc), MD

[grania]

Hi-thanks for a voice in the wilderness of new boat ownership. We're talking about a Volvo Penta md7a, I believe. ??? Aine

[bottomscraper]

Many of the engine owner and shop manuals can be found right here on the CDSOA web site:


http://www.capedory.org/cdsoalook-group ... inemanuals

Not all engines have zincs. It took me a long time to not find the zinc on my Perkins!

[Stan W.]

Hi-thanks for a voice in the wilderness of new boat ownership. We're talking about a Volvo Penta md7a, I believe. ??? Aine

The MD7A has no zinc UNLESS it has the optional fresh water cooling. In that case, the zinc is part of a bronze fitting screwed into the side of the heat exchanger near the bottom. Of course, in either case, there also should be a zinc outside the hull on the propellor nut or propellor shaft.

[grania]

I love this website! I do not have the optional fresh water cooling-therefore my search for the sacrificial zinc (not the outer ones-I know about those) would have been in vain, no? I could have spent hours,days, years..... What is the best way to keep an old engine clean and free of crud (I'm sure CRUD is not the correct nautical term, but, well, it sounds better than flaky rust...) that can clog up the cooling system? Any ideas? Aine